I Was Just Wondering..

Yup the general population is full of idiots unfortunately. The worst example of this? The girl who dropped a puggle she bought the night before (when she went to the mall to buy jeans) off at the shelter because she lived in a dorm and she didn't realize that puppies pooped and peed! [:@]

Just goes to prove, too, that someone who goes to college isn't always the brightest bulb in the fixture...

Sadly, too many of the general population think of a dog as "just a dog".  They follow the vets advice on what to feed what vaccines to give, etc, etc, etc, not realizing that vets are not specialists in nutrition, etc.  Human medical docs send folks with diabetes, for example, to a nutritionalist.  They don't try to tweak a diet for the human........but we expect VETS to know everything.  Sorry, they are human, not computers.
 
I work with a fellow who is a nice guy and a compassionate human being.  He has three dogs.  Momma is half wolf.  Two of the siblings have mated TWICE and produced majorly mixed breed pups.  He's been having issues with the dogs escaping and AC picking them up.  He recently asked me when I foster, how I "get rid of" my pups.  I don't, but this guy doesn't have the mentality to accept my explanation or to understand why I cringe at that term.  And another gal just glibbly told him that since the dogs are so much trouble, it's time to get rid of them.......to THEM these animals weren't a lifetime commitment, but something that they can dump if they are too much trouble.  Oh, and the dogs who keep running away are OUTSIDE only dogs.  Sigh.
 
Another gal has a black gsd.  She'd like to breed him to a white female to see what she'd get.  DUH?????  No genetic testing, etc, but she has friends who love him soooo much that they want one of his pups.  I flat out asked her TEN friends??  A litter that large isn't uncommon for a shepherd.
 
People in general are idiots when it comes to animals.

I am pretty much in a perpetual state of cringing from listening to people talk about animals.

When I did rat rescue, I heard the most amazing crap from people. "Hi, will you take my male and female rat and their litter of 14 babies? Also the female is pregnant again. The babies are 8 weeks old and I haven't seperated the sexes yet, because I didn't KNOW I was supposed to do that at 5 weeks. Oh well, looks like you'll have even MORE babies to play with soon! Lucky you! And no, you can't have their cages, I want to get some hamsters. Could you come by and pick them up? Gas is expensive and I don't feel like driving. I'm sure you'll have a TOTALLY easy time finding homes for a bunch of PEWs and Black Hoodeds, and oh by the way they haven't been handled at all so they bite. But they're very cute!" [&o]

"Hey, can I adopt a rat from you? I wanna get a blue and breed it to my beige and see what I get. Don't worry, I can feed the babies to my snake after their color comes in. I just wanna see what I'll get."

"I have a tiny 5 gallon tank that I used to keep a mouse in, and now I want 3 rats. Don't bother telling me that a 5 gallon tank is too small for even a mouse, I am going to PUT 3 RATS IN IT. Also I want 2 girls and a boy because babies are cute. And I'm not worried about the cost of caring for them all, because I have half a bag of hamster food left from my mouse. It died by the way."

"Will you take my rat? I got him a year ago and I've been feeding him sun flower seeds and pizza crust. His hair fell out and he doesn't hold food normally and he seems kind of retarded (gee, could malnutrition be the problem?). If I give you this messed up one, can I adopt another one from you for free? It'll be a trade!"

"Haha, you have rats? Oh I had some rats once. They kept sneezing and wheezing and then they died. What? Respiratory infections? Mycoplasmosis? I don't know those words! Take them to the vet?? Why would I do that!? They're just RATS!"

Ugh, I could go on forever. There are so many reasons I don't breed or rescue anymore, and stupid people is #1 on the list. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people are DUMB about animals, and have no inclination to change, since it's "just an animal." Animal people get treated like WE'RE the crazy ones for actually caring. [&o]